Barbara Eberhard's Blog - Posts Tagged "prejudice"
Prejudice
As I've written before, I've tried in my writing to normalize things that are different. My books have LGBTQ+ characters. They have characters of different races and nationalities. I try to make the differences in humans "not a thing". We are all people. And as a cis-gendered, white woman, I try to do what I can to reflect that reality.
This is particularly true in my fantasy books. I have men loving women, women loving men, men loving men, and women loving women. I have peoples of many different complexions, and the only differences they note are that blushes are harder to see with darker complexions. And sometimes facial features are different - like when Sorcha adjusts her nose and Aidan's nose to be more like the Marjibi they are trying to impersonate.
So, I've tried to normalize different ways of being in my fantasy novels. To make the differences between us unremarkable.
But I also - as I've written before - follow Gene Roddenberry's precept of showing how dangerous prejudice can be. In this case, it's against mages.
In the country of Pellent, Petryk - their god - believed magic was evil. He put an interdiction in place against mages. I've talked about this in other blogs. A generation before - during the days of the Reunion trilogy - he removed that curse. It made it so people born as mages in Pellent didn't feel like they had to leave. Because the edict had made magic illegal. And the interdiction from Petryk had made it uncomfortable to be a magical person in Pellent.
But even with the removal of the curse, a generation later, the prejudice of generations before lingered. Mages learned magic in secret, and many were not open about being mages at all. They hid their familiars. They didn't share their talents with the world. Sure, they might practice magic here and there. But it was always hidden.
Only a few were brave enough to be open as mages. They walked the streets with their familiars. They practiced magic in public. They were not arrested - not anymore. But neither were they welcomed.
The Jewel Keepers meet the gods. They tell Petryk that there seems to be some remnants of his curse still in place. Chagrined, Petryk removes the last vestiges of his interdiction.
And suddenly, there are hundreds of thousands of mages in Pellent. And the fear and prejudice against them is gone. The mages who had trained others in secret set up a mage school, so all mages can learn. Publicly. Openly. Unabashedly.
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could remove the last vestiges of prejudice in our world so easily? If only.
This is particularly true in my fantasy books. I have men loving women, women loving men, men loving men, and women loving women. I have peoples of many different complexions, and the only differences they note are that blushes are harder to see with darker complexions. And sometimes facial features are different - like when Sorcha adjusts her nose and Aidan's nose to be more like the Marjibi they are trying to impersonate.
So, I've tried to normalize different ways of being in my fantasy novels. To make the differences between us unremarkable.
But I also - as I've written before - follow Gene Roddenberry's precept of showing how dangerous prejudice can be. In this case, it's against mages.
In the country of Pellent, Petryk - their god - believed magic was evil. He put an interdiction in place against mages. I've talked about this in other blogs. A generation before - during the days of the Reunion trilogy - he removed that curse. It made it so people born as mages in Pellent didn't feel like they had to leave. Because the edict had made magic illegal. And the interdiction from Petryk had made it uncomfortable to be a magical person in Pellent.
But even with the removal of the curse, a generation later, the prejudice of generations before lingered. Mages learned magic in secret, and many were not open about being mages at all. They hid their familiars. They didn't share their talents with the world. Sure, they might practice magic here and there. But it was always hidden.
Only a few were brave enough to be open as mages. They walked the streets with their familiars. They practiced magic in public. They were not arrested - not anymore. But neither were they welcomed.
The Jewel Keepers meet the gods. They tell Petryk that there seems to be some remnants of his curse still in place. Chagrined, Petryk removes the last vestiges of his interdiction.
And suddenly, there are hundreds of thousands of mages in Pellent. And the fear and prejudice against them is gone. The mages who had trained others in secret set up a mage school, so all mages can learn. Publicly. Openly. Unabashedly.
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could remove the last vestiges of prejudice in our world so easily? If only.
